Stephanie Roche believes that the 2017 disagreement between the FAI and the Irish women's team was needed for the highest-possible targets to be achieved.

Roche was front-and-centre as the women's team deemed it right to go public with concerns over player welfare and professional standards within the women's game - concerns that, according to Roche, were expressed privately before the situation arose in the public eye.

"I do think that, for us personally, it needed to be said," says Stephanie.

"As a group of players, I remember speaking and saying that we needed to go and say it because we [were] at a stage where we had such a good group of players, a great coach that wants us to play in the right way - we needed to have everything else coming together.

"When girls weren't in camp was probably the biggest issue because some girls don't have gym memberships - they are working full-time. It was little things like that.

"We thought that whenever we came into camp that we weren't quite ready and I have been around ten years, where we have almost got there and it's almost like 'Well done - you didn't get it...'"

"We wanted to stop [the attitude that just having a women's team was enough.]"

An important point to make is that

"There was a lot that went on before that. We didn't want to do that at all. You can see that by the faces on all of us, we all looked like we were all depressed off our heads.

"We had the PFAI representing us and they were trying to help us in getting that stuff across.

"They [the FAI] didn't want the PFAI representing us.

"It wasn't like us against them; because I think that the FAI want the same as us - to be able to go to major tournaments. We just felt that the few little things that we put on the list were what we needed in order to get there.

"I think in doing that, we have put pressure on ourselves and I think the girls know that."

However, despite past concerns that administrative and sporting targets were out of kilter, it appears that goals are more aligned than ever before in the women's game.

"We have seen in the World Cup qualifiers how well the girls have done, even though we fell short. They put in some great performances against the likes of Holland.

"We have definitely put pressure on ourselves but, again, we didn't want it to be seen as an 'us versus them' mentality.

"We want to come together and make sure we are all pushing towards the same goal."

Subscribe to Off The Ball's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.